Adams Named Powell Fellowship Winner

Adams will be working on child support
payments enforcement for the District of Columbia Legal Aid
Society next year.

Lise Adams is the recipient of the Law School's
Powell Fellowship
for the Class of 2003. The fellowship provides $35,000 a year
for two years for a graduate entering a public service career.
Adams will be working on child support payments enforcement for
the District of Columbia Legal Aid Society, where she interned
in the summer of her second year in law school.

Besides representing individual low-income women
trying to collect child support, Adams will be doing outreach
and training about the collection process as well as working for
reforms to the system. She even contemplates the possibility of
filing suit against the D.C. Child Support Enforcement Division,
if they continue violating federal and local law.

"I can do so many different things I could
never be bored," Adams said. "The attorneys at Legal
Aid work extraordinarily hard, especially with child support cases.
Since the welfare reform law there have been time limits imposed
on cash assistance, so child support income has become increasingly
important to poor mothers. If they are no longer eligible for
welfare, child support payments typically account for a third
of their income. And 25 percent of custodial mothers have never
seen a dime of the amount the court said they are due."

Adams said she hopes to stay with Legal Aid
for several years. "I really enjoy the direct services work.
I came to the law school because a J.D. gives you one of the most
effective tools for effecting social change."

Created in honor of the late U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., a native of Richmond, the Powell
Fellowship is designed to improve the delivery of legal services
to the poor. First awarded last year, it provides a fellow's salary
for two years with his or her benefits paid by the sponsoring
public interest organization. Adams urged those interested in
public interest law to prepare an application early because a
candidate must show that a sponsor is willing to contribute the
benefits portion and has the capacity to house another attorney. Reported by M. Marshall